Decentralized Identity: crypto tool to control your data

Do you own your digital identity?

If you think you do, just imagine what happens if you’re locked out of your email and cannot login to any of websites that use it as a credential.

Or imagine expressing an opinion that does not fully correspond to the dogma of the moment – social media will delete your account with everything it contains in a minute.

Attentive readers might spot an introduction to “Why centralized authorities are harmful”…and they will be right ?

Luckily the blockchain can fix this with Decentralized Identity (DID) concept, and one of the pioneering companies in this area is Microsoft with its ION project.

Built atop of Bitcoin, ION is aiming at creating an independent (=decentralized) identity tool where a user is the only one to own their credentials. It could be used to prove things, like a diploma we mention on our LinkedIn profile, or to login into websites, or even to store your social media data on a separate cloud, meaning that if #Facebook or others decide to delete your account, you’ll still be owning your content.

This is a very important subject, but many prefer not to think about it and hit “Login with Google” while registering on a new website, ever increasing the centralization of their identity within one company. Let’s be attentive to that ?